20 AUGUST 1994, Page 27

General woofiness

Sir: Your music critic Peter Phillips (Arts, 13 August) must indeed have cloth ears if he 'doubts that the singing of our choral societies has changed significantly in the last 150 years'.

I advise him to listen to, for example, Sargent's Messiah or even Barbirolli's famed Gerontius. There he will hear much soprano-swooping and vibrato, bass-boom- ing, and general 'woofiness'. Now compare this with the choral singing on the 1993 recording of Gerontius by Vernon Handley and the combined Royal Liverpool Philhar- monic Choir and Huddersfield Choral Soci- ety. The sound is incomparably crisper, clearer and lighter — a style aimed at by all good choral societies today.

J. McCarthy

31 Campden Grove, London W8